Chapter 3 - The East Wing.
By midnight, no one in the Mercer mansion was pretending the evening could return to normal.
James sent Mrs. Alvarez to find dry clothes for Emma and asked her to stay nearby afterward.
He told the remaining staff not to leave the property until he understood why the security system had been altered.
Then he walked toward the east wing.
Vanessa followed him.
“You’re turning this into a spectacle.”
James did not slow down.
“You tied a terrified employee outside in a storm.”
“I restrained someone I believed had stolen from me.”
“With rope?”
“She was trying to run.”
James stopped at the archway leading to the east corridor.
A temporary brass sign read CLOSED FOR RESTORATION.
He pulled it from its stand and dropped it against the wall.
The corridor beyond was perfectly dry.
No tarps covered the floors.
No fans hummed.
No repair equipment sat against the walls.
The supposed water damage did not exist.
Vanessa crossed her arms again.
“The workers finished early.”
James looked at the polished floors.
“There isn’t dust on anything.”
“You want to prosecute me for good housekeeping?”
He continued toward the records room.
The old brass handle had been replaced with an electronic lock.
That was new.
James touched the keypad.
It lit up red.
“When was this installed?”
Vanessa said nothing.
He turned to her.
“When?”
“Last month.”
“Who approved it?”
“I did.”
“This room contains family deeds, original contracts, and archived trust files.”
“And now it is more secure.”
“I no longer have access.”
Vanessa’s calm expression slipped for only a moment.
“You probably forgot the new code.”
James gave her a flat look.
“I didn’t know there was a new code.”
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Emma approached in a dry black sweater and loose trousers borrowed from another employee.
Mrs. Alvarez stayed close to her.
Emma pointed toward the baseboard near the records room.
“That’s where the folder came out.”
James crouched.
A narrow gap showed beneath the door.
He stood again and looked at the keypad.
“Did you see Vanessa enter a code?”
Emma nodded.
“Twice.”
“Do you remember it?”
Vanessa laughed once.
“Of course she doesn’t.”
Emma looked at James.
“I remember the pattern.”
Vanessa stopped smiling.
Emma demonstrated four positions on the keypad without touching the numbers.
James studied them.
The pattern could correspond to several combinations.
One possibility made his stomach tighten.
He entered 0417.
The lock clicked green.
Vanessa’s face went still.
April seventeenth had been James’s mother’s birthday.
Very few people outside the family knew that.
James opened the door.
The room smelled faintly of leather, paper, and recently burned candle wax.
The records shelves should have been packed from wall to wall.
Instead, three entire sections were empty.
Boxes sat open on the central table.
A portable scanner was connected to a laptop.
Several red legal folders were stacked beside it.
James picked up the top folder.
MERCER FAMILY PROPERTY TRUST.
Vanessa stepped into the room.
“This is exactly why I locked it.”
James opened the folder.
Several pages were missing.
“Why?”
“Because these records are valuable.”
“To whom?”
“To anyone.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Emma moved toward the scanner.
“I saw that machine earlier.”
Vanessa snapped at her.
“Stay out of this.”
James turned.
“She is in this because you put her in it.”
Vanessa stared at him with a fury she had been hiding since he arrived.
“You always do this.”
James frowned.
“Do what?”
“You disappear for weeks and then come home acting like everyone betrayed you because they made decisions without you.”
James closed the folder.
“Who is everyone?”
Vanessa looked away.
That answer was more useful than anything she had said aloud.
James walked to the laptop.
The screen was locked.
He noticed a small external drive plugged into the side.
Before he could touch it, the lights went out.
The east wing plunged into darkness.
Emma gasped.
Mrs. Alvarez called James’s name.
A second later, the emergency lights flickered red along the floor.
James reached for his phone.
The entire mansion had not lost power.
He could still see chandelier light spilling from the distant foyer.
Only the east wing had gone dark.
Then came the sound of a door opening behind them.
James spun around.
A figure moved at the far end of the hall.
“Stop.”
The figure ran.
James went after him.
He reached the service staircase in seconds.
The rear door slammed below.
By the time James reached the courtyard, rain had swallowed the driveway.
A dark sedan raced through the side gate.
The gate opened without any security challenge.
James could not see the driver.
But he saw the passenger for one second when lightning lit the interior.
Gray hair.
Brown leather case.
Arthur Bell had been inside the house.
May you like
When James returned to the records room, Vanessa was gone.
So was the external drive.
